When all the guests had gone Deringham came upon his daughter alone.  “I noticed Mr. Alton was not effusive,” he said.

“No,” said the girl languidly, though there was a curious expression in her eyes.  “I do not remember that he told much beyond the fact that he would be a cripple—­all his life.  He mentioned it twice.”

CHAPTER XXVI

WITHOUT COUNTING THE COST

There had been a revival of speculation in industrial enterprise, and it was unusually late at night when Miss Townshead rose wearily from the table she had been busy at.  Her eyes ached, her fingers and arms were cramped, but that did not distress her greatly, for Townshead needed many comforts, and she was earning what would have been considered in England a liberal salary.  It was very quiet in the room at the top of the towering building, where, however, another young woman, who as it happened was jealous of her companion’s progress, still sat writing, and a light blinked in the adjoining one across the passage in which one of the heads of the firm would probably remain most of the night.  Trade is spasmodic in the West, and those who live by it work with feverish activity when the tide is with them.

“You’re through?” said Miss Holder.  “Well, if you can wait ten minutes I’ll come along with you.”

Nellie Townshead was not especially fond of her companion, but at that hour the streets were lonely, and she sat down again when she had put on her hat and jacket.  While she waited a little bell began to ring, and Miss Holder rose with an impatient exclamation.

“Get your pencil, Nellie,” she said, as she took the telephonic receiver down from the hook.

Miss Townshead took a sheet of paper from a case, and waited until her companion spoke again.  “Oh, yes, I’m here.  A little late to worry tired folks, isn’t it?  No.  Mr. Hallam’s away just now.  Wire from Somasco just come in—­and we’re to let him have it as soon as we can.  Oh, yes, I understand you.  ’Platinum, galena, cyanide, Alton, oxide.  In a vise.’  You’ve got that, Nellie?  Do I know when Hallam will get it?  No, I don’t.  Good-night.”

Now a man would probably have at once enclosed the message in an envelope, but a Western business lady not infrequently takes a kindly interest in the private concerns of her employer, especially if they are not quite clear to her.  Accordingly Miss Holder sat down and read over the message, after which she shook her head.

“I wonder what it’s all about, and I don’t like that Hallam,” she said.  “He’s an insect.  A crawling one with slimy feet, and to pin a big diamond in front of one as he does is horrible taste.  Give me the book, Nellie.  It reads like our cypher.  Oh, yes.  ’Instructions to hand.  No legal improvements done and claim unrecorded.  Will relocate.’  Now we’ve nothing that silver stands for, and it reads quite straight.  ’Will relocate the silver claim as soon as prospecting is possible.  Alton cannot take action.’  He means he’s got him in a vise.”